Hi, I have a question about "can't help but not" phrases. I was talking about someone the other day, and I caught myself saying, "she's so nice that you can't help but not like her." I started wondering about the construction of how I said that as I didn't sound right.
Isn't this improper usage? Seems improper because of the double negative. Wouldn't the proper way to say this would be to simply state, "she's so nice that you can't help but like her"?
searched on google, and looked up this phrase, "cant help but not like" and noticed that quite a A LOT of people seem to use the "can't help but not like" phrase in the same context I did earlier today. I also noticed that some people tend to use the phrase in a negative way, such as, "It was such a lousy movie that you can't help but NOT like it." Isn't this also incorrect usage as well? If you don't like something, but want to use the "can't help but" phrase in this instance, wouldn't you say something like, "It was such a lousy movie that you can't help but hate it?"
"she's such a lousy person that you can't help but dislike her?"